Thanks to Tweakie for the hot shoe bubble vial idea, and I've sawn it in 2 and attached one of them to my Z axis adjustable limit switch.

Works perfectly and I get the switch in the perfect position everytime - 

I also made an indicator holder for my magnetic based indicator. I just unscrewed the magnetic base and drilled and tapped a block of aluminum and mounted in a T slot on the headstock. Great for those 4 jaw location projects.

Dave

Excellent Dave.   

Tweakie.

This is amazing.  Thank you for the pics and video.

I have a taig that I want to convert to CNC. Do you have a build thread that explains what you had to do?  A parts list would be nice.

Hello,

Not really a build thread sorry, but the components I used for the electronics were:

-NEMA 23 BIPOLAR STEPPER MOTOR 270 oz-in, ¼” Diameter Shaft with flat KL23H276-28-4B (Dual Shaft) Price: $39

-power supply= The $50 Keling KL-300-48 48V/5A

-Gecko G540 Drives/breakout Board.

Hope that helps-
Dave

Thank you.  This machine is a pleasure to look at.  I spend a lot of time looking at the pics.

Two questions:  Any specs on how you set up the ball screw?

And: Did you make all of those brackets and spacers yourself?  It looks fantastic.

Thanks again for the kind words.

There are quite a few things I still want to do to the lathe as this setup was just to see how much it would take to get the thing running 

Now that I do in fact have it working well, I plan on doing a number of things such as "beefing" up the Z axis screw which right now is a standard stainless steel screw that I polished up so no burrs or anything like that would eat up the Delrin anti-backlash block. The X axis is pretty much stock and has about .005 backlash so I want to deal with that as well. Not a real big deal on a lathe but tight is good.

Yes, I made all the brackets for everything as this was just a "kit" form Taig Lathe which is really a great deal as it does not take a rocket scientist to get up and running. Keep in mind I have a shop where I made all my brackets so unless you have that at your disposal, I guess it could be pretty tricky to do without.

I highly recommend looking at Nick Carters website (cartertools.com) as he has an amazingly amount of info on the Taig stuff.

Dave

An update for my little Taig Lathe.

Finally got my RPM setup up to speed (lol!!) and thought I'd share a couple of pics. Thanks to Arturo (http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/) and Peter Homann (http://www.homanndesigns.com/store/) for helping me figure out what I needed to do this right.

Also wanted to thank SimonD for his posting of his guide for setting up the Speed control : http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,6707.20.html

I can now, with the flick of a switch, run my motor manually, or through Mach 3 control.

You can also see the index plate I made (one with the many holes in it   ) , but I still have to make the spring loaded engaging pin that will allow the spindle to be held in position.

Thanks,
Dave

Love the Gecko Inside logo

Hood

Marris liked it as well 

Dave

I bet he did but also bet he doesnt use it for fear of being sued
Bit curious, what spindle speeds do these wee lathes have?

Hood